Saturday, May 22, 2010

You Are Holy Because I Am Holy

Holy. Me. Really? My mind keeps drifting to this idea of holiness and what it really means for us. I think many of us have endured a form of "reductionist" Christianity that has reduced the gospel down to manageable ideas and soundbites. It has also reduced the way of Christ down to sin management at best. My heart tells me there has to be more. However I know where my mind goes and I know to what and to whom my heart feels pulled and I am left challenged by my own unholiness.

After looking at this word and how it is used I think I am sure of this. Holiness is God's work. Alone. It is what He does in and through us. What makes us Holy is not our own piety or our own ability to "do good." It is because God has consecrated us for His purpose. Whether it is a place or a time or a special day or a person -- it is the consecrating of that thing or being for use by God that makes it holy.

And so we are holy because He is holy. We are made, called and sent for a purpose.

3 comments:

And though it's amazingly beautiful to think that God's love for me is so great, he's willing to crown me holy, sometimes it makes me feel like a fraud because I know how unworthy I truly am. How does one resolve that conflict?

'After looking at this word and how it is used I think I am sure of this. Holiness is God's work. Alone. It is what He does in and through us. What makes us Holy is not our own piety or our own ability to "do good." It is because God has consecrated us for His purpose.'

Yes, we are saved by the power of God in grace through faith, unto good works as in Ephesians 2.

Yes it is true. I've felt the same dichotomy. A sermon i was once listening to coined the idea well. I remember the man saying, "A lot of how we understand God has to do with the degree to which we realize how undeserving and ( apart from God) how sinful we are, but also understanding and experiencing how much we are loved."